The calendar of the Senate shows one hundred and fifteen bills now on your table from the Senate alone, of which only a small portion have been considered; and looking at the House calendar, I find one of their late bills numbered one hundred and two, showing that very large number, of which you have considered thus far only a very small proportion. I do not ask attention to these numerous bills, but unquestionably among them are many of great importance. There are two especially to which I have already referred, and to which I mean to call your attention, so long as you sit as a Congress, and down to the last moment, unless they shall be acted on. I mean, in the first place, the bill providing for a change in the time of electing a mayor and other officers in the city of Washington. Congress ought not to go home leaving this question unsettled.
You have bestowed the suffrage upon the colored people here, and they are about to exercise it in choosing aldermen and a common council; but those aldermen and common councilmen will find themselves presided over by a mayor chosen by a different constituency, and hostile to them in sentiment, one possessing sometimes the veto power, and always a very considerable influence, which he will naturally exercise against this new government. Will you leave Washington subject to such discord? Will you consent that the votes of the colored people shall be thus neutralized the first time they are called into exercise? I trust Congress will not adjourn until this important bill is acted upon. It is very simple; it need not excite discussion; it is practical. Let it be read at the table, and every Senator will understand it, and will be ready to vote upon it without argument. Thus far I have not been able to bring it before the Senate, though I have tried day by day. I have not yet been able to have it read.
Mr. Sumner then referred again to the bill securing the elective franchise throughout the country, vindicating its constitutionality and necessity.
Mr. Wilson then moved to amend by making the day of adjournment the 10th of April; but this was rejected,—Yeas 13, Nays 28. Mr. Sumner then moved to amend by inserting “five o’clock, Saturday afternoon,” instead of “twelve o’clock, noon,” saying, “so that we shall have five hours more for work”; but this, modified by the substitution of four o’clock, was likewise rejected.
The substitute of Mr. Edmunds was then adopted,—Yeas 28, Nays 12,—Mr. Sumner voting in the negative. The House concurred, and the adjournment took place accordingly.
In this episode began the differences with regard to President Johnson. To protect good people against him was the object of the earnest effort to prolong the session and to provide for an intermediate session before the regular meeting of Congress. Among those who voted for the adjournment were distinguished Senators who afterwards voted for his acquittal, when impeached at the bar of the Senate.